FRANKLIN County, Nebraska Cemeteries

First published in 2000. "Tombstone Readings from Franklin County Nebraska Cemeteries" by Lynn E. Henning-Chase. This is a fully indexed spiral-bound book with over 300 pages. You can purchase your copy from the Franklin County Museum, 1309 H Rd, Franklin, NE 68939.

If you would like a FREE lookup, Carol Britton or Patti Simpson will be happy to assist you.

To see photos of various military grave markers and what they stand for, try this link http://www.rootsweb.com/~negenweb/helpfiles/warimage.html.

For those of you interested, the following is a list of cemeteries in Franklin County.

1. Ashgrove Cemetery (Bailey-Moore-Fischer)
2. Campbell Presbyterian Cemetery (Webster County)
3. Emmanuel Lutheran Cemetery
4. Fuller Cemetery
5. Greenwood Cemetery
6. Hildreth Cemetery (Glenn-Long)
7. John the Baptist Catholic Church Cemetery (Catholic)
8. Macon Union Cemetery (German Union)
9. Macon Zion Lutheran Cemetery
10. Maple Grove Cemetery
11. Moline Cemetery
12. Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Chitwood-Blauvelt-Miller-Sanger-Haffy Blank)
13. Naponee Cemetery
14. Riverton Cemetery
15. Russia Town Cemetery (Koch-Cook)
16. Shields Cemetery
17. St Ann Catholic Cemetery (Webster County)
18. St Johns Lutheran Cemetery (German Evangelical Lutheran)
19. St Peters Lutheran Cemetery
20. Trinity Lutheran Cemetery
21. Upland Cemetery
22. Vincent Stevens Cemetery
23. West Salem (Garrelts)

Private Family Cemeteries:

Along with these more public cemeteries, there are also some private family plots. I do not know how many of these small, private cemeteries are located in Franklin County. However, I do know of one personally.

Located about 1 mile East of the present Naponee Cemetery, on the SW1/4 of Section 5, Township 1 North, Range 16 West, there is a small grave site on land currently owned by the Stoltz family. This area was farmed at one time, but has not been worked now since the 1980s.

The following quote is from the "History of Naponee Nebraska 1869-1976":
"According to an article written by Beulah Melton, daughter of Joe Melton, November 10, 1922, the first cemetery was west of the present one in the Frank Kelley's pasture, at the north side of his farm. It is about a half mile west of the present cemetery. A few graves were placed there before the cemetery was relocated at this present location. markers remain there, however names are not plain and only a few letters and some of the dates can be read. Mr. Kelly was the father of Grover, Lou, Bill, and Mrs. Hill, who lives at Franklin."

This original cemetery plot is fenced in, but no cattle or other livestock have grazed there for some time. I personally walked this area on October 5, 2001 and found one headstone. The stone is broken and laying in the tall grass. The only parts left of the headstone is the first name of the deceased along with a very faint death date and age. The first name is so unusual that I did some research and came to the conclusion of who he is.

I believe the grave belongs to Jeshuron Barney who died October 20, 1883 at the age of 82 years. Jeshuron Barney was the son of Charlie Barney. One of my hobbies is "witching" for graves. I checked the area out and found there to be three graves on that hill. Two men and one woman. Since there is no record of Charley Barney's burial, I will assume that the one grave is Jeshuron's, one grave is Charley's and the woman could be Charley's wife. I think she must have been Charley's wife as I don't believe Jeshuron was married.

I know some of you reading this story will wonder how in the world I would know how many unmarked graves there were on that hill, let alone whether they were male or female. Well, if you're ever in south central Nebraska, and we both have a little time on our hands, I will show you what a friend of mine once showed me. Until then, have fun exploring your roots!

Signed - Patti Simpson

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Updated 2022